


Hand of Fate

by notmyyacht



Category: Leap of Faith - Menken/Slater/Cercone
Genre: Existentialism, F/M, Jonas is the next big superhero, Post-Canon, Religious Conflict
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-07
Updated: 2016-05-07
Packaged: 2018-06-06 21:22:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6770419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notmyyacht/pseuds/notmyyacht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Jake was healed, it shook Jonas to his core. But it wasn't the last time...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hand of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> There needs to be more Jonas fic. Here's my contribution. I tried to write something serious, but then it got cute. I'm sorry. Enjoy!

It didn't stop. It never stops.

Healing Jake had changed Jonas, preferably for the better. At least, his new life in Sweetwater felt like it was a change in his life for the better. He was _happy_ , which is more than he could say about the majority of his life.

But then there was the accident.

A local farmer named Martin lost control of his truck and drove straight into Kelly, a friend of Marla's. Jonas and Marla saw the whole thing and came running the second after they processed it.

Martin was fine, maybe a little bruised, but Kelly... Kelly was unconscious and dangling out of the driver's seat door of her car, her feet still tangled in the seatbelt, her knee twisted the opposite way it should be; her face lay in the dust, blood dripping down her long hair.

Marla was at Kelly's side first, Jonas on her tail. Martin jumped out of his car and came around the front to where Marla cradled Kelly's head in her lap. He stared at Kelly in shock.

"She's still breathing! Somebody call a goddamn ambulance!" Marla screamed. A few of the onlooker townsfolk looked at each other, each waiting for the other to make a move first.

"What are you waiting for!?" Marla said, tears welling in her eyes.

Martin, finally snapping out of his shock, turned to the nearest person and gripped their arm.

"You heard her! Call an ambulance! Call the doctor!"

Bolted by the motivation, several members of the crowd started scurrying to take their phones out or decided to simply run on foot to the office of the only doctor in town. Marla turned her attention back to her best friend in her arms.

"Do you think we should take her leg out or would it do more damage?" she said.

Jonas kneeled down beside her.

"How close is the nearest hospital?" he asked. Marla paused.

"Topeka."

The word hung between them like a dark, heavy cloud. Jonas closed his eyes and hung his head. Topeka was miles from Sweetwater. Kelly would be gone before an ambulance could even arrive...

Marla ran her fingers through Kelly's blood-caked hair. Jonas placed his hand over hers, causing her to finally look at him since the accident occurred.

"Pray with me, Jonas?"

Jonas grit his teeth, but nodded. It was still hard, even after everything that happened when he came to Sweetwater. He was honestly trying though. Maybe that was enough to score some points.

He squeezed Marla's hand and forced a smile for her sake. Jonas slipped his other hand into Kelly's.

"Our Father," Marla started, closing her eyes. Jonas didn't say the prayer out loud, but he followed along in his head. One step at a time. However, when Marla said "Amen" he said it with her. That, he was able to do now.

They stayed that way for a moment, quiet and in private prayer. Jonas prayed. He prayed that God would give Kelly another chance. He liked Kelly. She was sweet and always brought over the best pie he'd ever tasted. She could also drink him under the table. Jonas almost smiled at the memory.

_Don't take her, not yet._

That's when he felt her hand move in his. Jonas opened his eyes and looked down at her.

"Kelly!?"

The surprised exclamation snapped Marla out of her own prayer and she, too, saw that Kelly was awake. Kelly looked up at the pair, blinked a few times, then furrowed her brow.

"What happened?" she asked, glancing around at her surroundings.

"Kelly don't move-"

But Kelly ignored Marla and attempted to sit up.

"My leg..." she started.

Jonas and Marla followed Kelly's gaze to her tangled leg and they both froze. Kelly's leg was still tangled in the seatbelt, but it was no longer broken. Her leg was set perfectly as if nothing had happened to it.

"My foot is stuck. Jonas, would you mind?" said Kelly. Jonas moved closer to the open car door and gently removed Kelly's leg from the tangled seatbelt. Kelly thanked him and fully sat up. Jonas and Marla could only stare at her as she ran a hand through her hair and stopped cold.

She looked down at her blood-covered hand and gasped, her eyes widening.

"I'm bleeding!" she shrieked. Panicked, she glanced up at the two. "Is this _my_ blood!?"

The town's doctor arrived then to find his patient without a scratch on her.

It didn't take long for Jonas to put two and two together. He sat up late that night with two fingers of whiskey and too many questions.

The next morning Jake said _it_ out loud.

"Jonas, maybe you can really heal people! Maybe I won't be the only one."

 _Please, don't call it what you want to call it_ , Jonas thought.

Jake doesn't, not yet.

The third time it happened was over a trivial thing. Marla nicked herself with the kitchen knife while chopping veggies.

"Here, let me see it," Jonas said, taking her hand. Marla smiled.

"You a doctor now?" she teased.

"You really want to play that game?" he replied with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.

"Maybe later." Marla licked her lips. Jonas followed the movement, his mind racing with what they might get up to later.

"Okay, Romeo, I'm going to need my hand back if I'm gonna put a bandaid on it," Marla said, tugging her hand. Jonas held on, teasing, and he looked down at the wound again. His smirk vanished and his stomach churned. Marla looked down at her hand and, she too, stopped joking.

The cut on her thumb was completely healed.

 

"Maybe God gave you a gift." To Jonas' surprise it was Marla, not Jake, who said it. He wished no one would've said it.

"Even if it is, what should I do about? Travel the country and heal strangers with faith? Been there, done that." Jonas paced the living room, not looking at Marla as he spoke.

"Jonas, this is the third time you've healed someone. This isn't something you can sweep under the rug, even if you can't explain it."

"It can't be faith. Your finger?" Jonas pointed at Marla's hand in emphasis. "I wasn't praying for it to be healed when it did."

"Who knows what triggers it? Maybe emotional attachment," Marla suggested. Jonas paused. It certainly made sense. He shook his head.

"Whatever it is, it's not some miracle by God's grace. That shit doesn't happen to a person three times unless they're Jesus. Whatever this 'gift' is, I don't want it." Jonas ignored whatever Marla opened her mouth to say next and stormed outside.

He sat on the porch stairs and glared up at the sky.

"Not you. Not again. I've learned my lesson, changed my life... What more could you want from me?" Jonas' words were not answered by the stars in the sky, nor by the possible answers in his heart.

He didn't know where this gift came from or if he could control it. However it was triggered, it didn't stop with a small cut.

A week later, Jonas healed a man who broke his hand on farming equipment. A month after that, a waitress burned her hand on scalding hot coffee at the local diner. She was lucky she was serving Jonas and Marla that morning.

A town meeting was called. Jonas sat behind a long table he couldn't help but compare to The Last Supper, and he listened to Marla give a speech to the people of Sweetwater about how The Miracles of Jonas Nightingale were just as much of a mystery to him as to everyone.

Jonas did not speak for himself. No, Marla could talk to these people better than he could -not that he was paying much attention.

A vote was called then by someone in the crowd.

Jonas snapped out of his daze and looked up at Marla at the podium. She gazed out at the seated townspeople, a look of weariness on her face.

"It's Jonas' gift! He should be the one who decides, not us!" cried another voice from the crowd -Kelly, Jonas recognized. There was a buzz of people agreeing.

Jonas leaned close to Jake on his left.

"What are we talking about?"

"Mr. Martin thinks we should tell the world about you," said Jake. "They're saying it might do the town good."

Jonas straightened his posture and exchanged a look with Marla.

"Well, Jonas, what do you want to do?" she asked. He stared at her hard. He could practically hear her thoughts. _Do the right thing._

Jonas stood and stepped up to the podium, an unfamiliar anxiety filling his stomach. He used to be so good at this. He unceremoniously cleared his throat.

"I don't know what's been happening lately or why. If it will keep happening or if a coffee burn will be the last time." Jonas felt Marla squeeze his hand. "Until I do get more answers, I want to keep it within Sweetwater. I might never get any answers and maybe..." His eyes met Marla's and he said, "maybe that's for the best."

 

Marla found Jonas lying out in the front yard grass later that night.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked, hands in her pockets.

"Free country," he mumbled.

Marla lay down beside him and slipped her hand into his. She looked up at the clear starry sky with him.

"Beautiful night," she commented.

Jonas said nothing, but he gently rubbed her knuckles with his thumb, an affectionate gesture Marla had quickly grown fond of the first week he stayed in Sweetwater. She scooted closer and fit her head onto his shoulder.

She could feel sleep starting to take hold when Jonas started moving beside her. She lifted her head and realized he was chuckling, that familiar, wonderful smile plastered on his face.

"What's so funny?"

He turned his head to face her.

"Guess now I'm practicing what I used to preach," he said. His smile grew wider at Marla's exasperated eye roll. She got to her feet and offered a hand to help him up.

"Alright, preacher, you've had your deep, meaningful stargazing and your lame jokes," Marla said, shaking her head and helping Jonas to his feet, "now it's bedtime for you."

"Oh?" Jonas winked at her. Marla rolled her eyes again and lead him up the porch steps. Jonas took one more glance at the stars before he followed her inside.

No, it won't stop, and that scared the shit out of Jonas... but maybe that's okay. At least he's not facing it alone.


End file.
